Oblon Professionals Tackle the Slopes with our International Guests

Oblon Professionals took Ms. Kanako So from MCC, Mr. Masataka Shinomiya from Kuraray, and Dr. Seizaburo Shiraga from Ajinomoto and his family on a ski trip to the Whitetail Resort in Mercersburg, PA this past Wednesday.

Oblon Celebrated International Women's Day and its 2019 Theme #Balance for Better

International Women's Day was celebrated Friday afternoon at an informal reception held at the Firm. Oblon recognized the valuable contributions of all "the women of Oblon" and the knowledge and expertise they bring to the Firm's successes every day. This year's theme of International Women's Day is "#Balance for Better."

PTAB Issues Three New Precedential Opinions

The PTAB designated three decisions as precedential this week (in addition to two earlier this month), indicating that the PTO may be in the process of designating precedential opinions on a number of issues, in line with revised Standard Operating Procedure 2 for designating precedential and informative decisions.

IPS Group Inc. ("IPS") appealed from two decisions of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California granting summary judgment of non-infringement of U.S. Patents 8,595,054 and 7,854,310. Duncan Parking Technologies Inc. ("DPT") appealed from a related decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("the Board") in an inter partes review holding that claims 1–5 and 7–10 of the '310 patent were not shown to be unpatentable as anticipated under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e).

SEMDA 2019 Medtech Conference

Want a Utility Patent? This Firm Secures the Most

Philippe Signore is quoted in a Law360 article that highlights Oblon's ranking as the Top Patent Firm of 2018, securing the most Utility Patents in 2018. Oblon is proud that this is the fourth consecutive year the firm achieved this top spot on the Harrity patent analytics list.

Oblon Came in First for the Top Patent Firms of 2018

The Harrity Analytics Team compiled a list of the top patent law firms that are ranked based on the total number of U.S. Utility Patents that were issued in 2018. Oblon came in first with 5596 Utility Patents.

On April 28, 2011, having reviewed the 79 public comments to its survey, popularly known as the “Trademark Bullying Survey,” the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) released its report to Congress, Trademark Litigation Tactics and Federal Government Services to Protect Trademarks and Prevent Counterfeiting(see above pdf). In a nutshell, the USPTO, working with the recently appointed Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator of the Office of Management and Budget, a part of the Executive Office of the President, determined that based on the information available, it is not clear “whether small businesses are disproportionately harmed by enforcement tactics that are based on an unreasonable interpretation of the scope of an owner’s rights.”

Respondents included several small business owners as well as intellectual property organizations (the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Section), and a few private sector attorneys. The survey showed 31% of respondents feel aggressive litigation tactics are a problem in trademark cases, but 61% of respondents did not answer the question of whether such tactics are a problem. In preparing its response to the USPTO survey, the ABA’s Intellectual Property Section conducted its own survey regarding aggressive litigation tactics in the area of trademark law. 44% of the 196 respondents to this question in its survey stated that such aggressive litigation tactics are no more common in trademark cases than in other areas of the law. Ultimately, despite the fact that the survey results did not clearly show that aggressive litigation tactics are more common in trademark cases than in other areas of the law, the USPTO acknowledged that it is possible small businesses are more likely to be adversely affected by aggressive tactics in this area of the law.

Enhance Federal agency educational outreach programs by identifying resources that enable small businesses to further their understanding of trademark rights, enforcement measures, and available resources for protecting and enforcing trademarks.

While “Trademark Bullying” is not a proven problem, the USPTO appears to believe the credibility of the threat warrants an educational outreach program to assist small business owners in understanding their rights and to encourage lawyers and law firms to make it easier for small businesses to benefit from, and not be unfairly harmed by, the trademark system.